No news is good news at the site of the slide that's cut off Highway 97 north of Summerland since Jan. 31. There has been no movement on the rock face for 12 days. That's given officials the confidence to predict a re-opening for early next week.
The local manager for the Ministry of Highways, Steve Sirett spoke to the news media while crews continued the job of hauling away what turned out to be over four times the amount of debris originally estimated: 27,000 cubic metres.
"As we started removing material," said Sirett, "we realized the failure was quite a bit deeper than we originally anticipated."
Once the highway is re-opened, there are plans to keep the southbound curb lane closed as a precaution. Sirett says that will allow engineers to do some further assessment. "And see how it responds to some warmer weather and precipitation, said Sirett. "We want to make sure we've assessed it properly."
The Callan Road detour below Hwy 97 will remain open 24 hours a day until the re-opening with occasional stoppages if further blasting is required.
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